can i delete my prefetch?

[mark]

Can anyone tell me definitively that it's ok to delete
all items in C:/Windows/Prefetch
Please help cause i don't want to delete something
important.
Thanks

 

[Wesley Vogel]

mark;
Yes. It will reload whatever it thinks it needs. I have had XP
installed for about a week and I have cleaned out prefetch three times.
Don't delete the folder, just it's contents.
Windows XP monitors the files that are used when the computer starts and
when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can
prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected
to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and
applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start
applications. This information is logged and stored on your hard drive
taking up space and requiring a process to be kept running monitoring which
applications are being run. This has a performance impact on your PC.
Like temporary files it can get too full. Hope this helps.
Let us know,
Wes

 

[rudy]

-----Original Message-----
Can anyone tell me definitively that it's ok to delete
all items in C:/Windows/Prefetch
Please help cause i don't want to delete something
important.
Thanks
.

Yes, once in a while it will just get too much stuff in
there and just delete it. It will accumulate again. It
is a feature to speed up the loading of programs that you
use often. But after a while too much is in there and
acually will slow you down.

 

[Kelly]

Hi,

The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and
helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs.

Windows XP "monitors" itself and notices which applications are launched
frequently. It gathers information about these applications and what they
access with the launch and stores this information in the prefetch folder.

It then uses this information to "optimize" access to these files so that
they launch faster.

Once every three days, by default, Windows XP will perform a partial
defragmentation and adjust the layout of the disk based upon current use.
The files to be moved are written in the file Layout.ini (found in the
Prefetch directory under the System Root directory).

More information here on the Prefetch Folder in Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_p.htm#xp_prefetch

/xp_tweaks.htm

Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

Can anyone tell me definitively that it's ok to delete
all items in C:/Windows/Prefetch
Please help cause i don't want to delete something
important.

The Prefetch folder contains records of the load pattern of each
program load made. It records files accessed and their timing. Then
every three days, when the system has an idle period, a rearrangement
of files is made, to bring ones used consecutively together and
optimise layout, so that a set of files that are seen to be needed for
a program to start up can all be accessed in a single sequence (hence
'prefetched'). This speeds up load times .


Things drop out of it after a week of non-use, and there is no real
point in trying to tidy it manually